Young Writers Project is an independent nonprofit that engages students to write, helps them improve and connects them with authentic audiences in newspapers, before live audiences and online. YWP also publishes an annual anthology and The Voice, a digital magazine with YWP’s best writing, images and features. More info: youngwritersproject.org or contact YWP at sreid@youngwritersproject.org or 802-324-9538.
This week – May 18-25 – is Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) Awareness Week in Vermont. EAB is an invasive pest killing Vermont’s 160 million ash trees (one in 12 trees). The following are the first- and second-place winners of a writing contest about EAB presented by Young Writers Project and the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program (UCF), a collaboration of University of Vermont Extension and the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.
The winners — First (Kelly Daigle, Bradford, $100); Second (Loren Young, Tunbridge, $75); Third (Adelle Brunstad, Enosburgh Falls, $50) — received their prizes along with a Vermont State Park pass from UCF and were invited to read their work at UCF’s Arbor Day Conference at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier on May 2. Read all submissions to this contest here: youngwritersproject.org/invasive.
UCF is working to raise awareness about EAB and to help manage its impact. EAB has been confirmed in 35 states and has killed millions of ash trees across the country. It has been identified in five Vermont counties (Orange, Washington, Caledonia, Bennington, Grand Isle) and is expected to spread across the state. UCF says, “While the loss of our ash trees is inevitable, identifying and infestations early and slowing the spread will give communities time to plan to mitigate the economic and ecological impacts of the pest.” You can help: https://vtinvasives.org/emerald-ash-borer-awareness-week-toolkit.
By Kelly Daigle
Age 16, Bradford, Vt.
I.
The darkness was warm and heavy — comforting, almost.
I could feel the sunlight upon my tough shell, so unlike how it felt to drift down, spinning and absolutely uncaring for the world, before settling there at my mother’s feet upon the hearty green moss.
The tough but gentle hands that intricately selected me off the ground carefully peeled back my outer coat, leaving me bare against the open air. Then the hands gingerly closed around me, again encasing me in blackness.
When the fingers unfurled once again, I was only free for a second before they dumped me into a tiny hole in the soil and covered me with it.
It was there that I took root, there that I was watered and nurtured.
And it was there that I grew.
II.
My branches have grown past the canopy, my bark strong and rough. Time has passed; I don’t know how much, but enough so that the small girl who watered me as a sapling has now grown up too.
Her knobby hands creak as they bring the woven basket filled with water to my trunk. She still believes that it is her alone that keeps me alive.
Her people cut down my mother long ago — good wood for boats, she told me.
She talks to me as if I were a human like her. I wish I were sometimes.
I think I love her.
III.
More time has passed. I have not seen the woman for many nights. I am not alone though.
The rest of her people have gotten closer and closer to me, inching their way across the forest. They cut down my kind like we are nothing, and I can only hope that they will leave me unharmed …
Read the complete story at youngwritersproject.org/node/27021.
By Loren Young
Age 12, Tunbridge
The ash tree is a very important tree in Vermont’s landscape. The ash has beautiful, diamond-shaped bark patterns and stands out in a forest due to its tall and straight lines.
To me, ash trees are iconic. They make the Green Mountains green in the spring and summer, and vivid orange in the fall. My dad and I find morel mushrooms growing in the nitrogen-rich soil at the base of our ash trees. They are known for having great, full tops, and bring good value in the timber market. Birds love ash trees, too, because they are high enough to keep away predators, and deer rely on them for food as they eat the buds off the young tops in the winter.
Due to their efficient speed of growth, ash trees cause maple trees to grow taller in a forest. As they compete for sunlight, maple trees fight alongside the ash to expand their own growth and reach for the sunlight. As a result, maple trees within a hardwood forest grow taller than they normally would without the ash. Taller, bigger maple trees bring higher timber values, which also help loggers, foresters, and land owners.
With the recent discovery of the emerald ash borer in Vermont, I am worried that these beautiful trees will slowly die. If the ash disappears, maple trees will be impacted next. You may think, “Why should I care, they’re just trees?” Well, those trees make furniture, doors, architectural sculptures, cabinets, and wood paneling…
Read the complete essay at youngwritersproject.org/node/27173.